Tom Lake

I read Tom Lake by Ann Patchett for my book club. The book description says, "In the spring of 2020, Lara’s three daughters return to the family's orchard in Northern Michigan. While picking cherries, they beg their mother to tell them the story of Peter Duke, a famous actor with whom she shared both a stage and a romance years before at a theater company called Tom Lake. As Lara recalls the past, her daughters examine their own lives and relationship with their mother, and are forced to reconsider the world and everything they thought they knew. Tom Lake is a meditation on youthful love, married love, and the lives parents have led before their children were born. Both hopeful and elegiac, it explores what it means to be happy even when the world is falling apart. As in all of her novels, Ann Patchett combines compelling narrative artistry with piercing insights into family dynamics. The result is a rich and luminous story, told with profound intelligence and emotional subtlety, that demonstrates once again why she is one of the most revered and acclaimed literary talents working today."

I listened to this book on audiobook, which was recommended by a few members of the book club who had already read the book because the narrator is Meryl Streep. And I will say, the narration was amazing. I usually struggle with fiction audiobooks because I can't follow the story, but not with this one. It drew me right in, and even though I had a hard copy of the book, I didn't want to switch over because I was really enjoying listening to it. Her voice was just perfect and engaging. Overall, this was a great read. I thought the story was fun to follow and written in a creative format, and I loved the author's character development. I loved Lara and her husband and girls and hated Duke and respected his brother. Just lots of emotions connected to the characters. It's hard to describe what made the story so charming and good, but it just was. Some of the words on the reviews that stuck out to me as great descriptors of the book include poignant, reflective, quiet, and reassuring. This book did have more language and sexual references than I usually like to read, so that was the downside for me.

Rating: * * (2/3 = Liked it)